Josh Coulson will be ruled out for months with an ankle injury, Cambridge United manager Shaun Derry has revealed.

The centre-back had to leave the pitch on a stretcher following a challenge from Paris Cowan-Hall in last Saturday’s home defeat to Wycombe Wanderers.

The U's are still waiting to hear more from a specialist before knowing the full extent of the problem, but manager Derry believes the defender will be sidelined for some time.

“We’ll have to speak to the potential surgeon next week and it looks like Josh might need an operation,” said Derry at this afternoon’s press conference ahead of the weekend visit of Cheltenham Town in Sky Bet League Two.

“I don’t think he’ll be having a party in the Coulson household this Christmas, I think it will be a pretty down and despondent few weeks for him.

“He’s a likeable guy and we think a lot of him, and the fans do as well. He’s got a fantastic rapport with the fans here at Cambridge.

“This has been a tough season for injuries and we’ve not had our fair share of luck with injuries.

“I’ve not seen it like this too many times. That’s not me making excuses, it’s just what’s happened.

“Josh will get on with it and he’ll have the support mechanism around him and we’ll get him back as quickly as possible, but it looks to be a pretty bad injury for him.

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United won 1-0 at Notts County in midweek as they played their third match in six days.

During that hectic time, Derry has lost the services of Medy Elito (knee) and Conor Newton (hamstring).

“This is what I was worried about when the schedule became clustered because of the added replay,” said Derry.

“You’re thinking about what the repercussions might be and the repercussions are we’ve lost some valuable members of our squad.

“All I’ve seen over the past four or five games are a lot of positives, especially on the football pitch, so to lose Medy Elito after the Dover game and for Newton to pull up with a tight hamstring on Tuesday night leaves a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

“You don’t want to be losing too many influential players who have produced some really good performances.

“Medy will be assessed early next week by an independent party and we’ll have to look upon what the timescale might be after he’s seen the relevant people.

“In terms of Conor we’re hopeful it’s not going to be too severe. He came off at the right time and didn’t make the situation any worse. We’ll have to look at Conor late.”